Saturday, 26 July 2008

A Theological Take on the Ol´Home Place


One thing you have to be careful of when you have academics around: they may just study YOU.
They snap photos: of the light fixtures, the tortilla, the chicken run, the decor. And they might then post them on the internet for all the world to see!

I know I subjected hundreds of people to the same kind of scrutiny back when I was a news reporter. Except I held my interviewees up to the gaze of thousands of readers, sometimes the very next day. This included their friends, family, and community... not just the limited-access, self-selecting audience of a blog. (They always let me know when I got it wrong, or the photographer shot an picture they felt was unflattering. Getting it right was somehow unremarkable.)

It´s always arresting when you see a public description of yourself, written by someone else. And so I give you... Michael´s blog. This is the viewpoint of Michael Barham, the doctoral candidate and Episcopal deacon who stayed at The Peaceable last week. He is writing a thesis about pilgrims and contemplation. And, as you might expect, he wrote about us in a charming and theological way, in posts called "Peaceable Hospitality" and "Hospitality II: Depth Cries Out to Depth." I am flattered. And I need to brush up on my New Testament Greek!

Somehow he did not look like a theologian. But one never do know, do one?


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Becky
I read "Michael's blog" as directed there from your Peaceable blog. It made me jealous and want to come there. And all those sunflowers!!!! Wow. I wonder what the future holds afterall, and how it matters in the light of eternity...?
Carla
PS working on the chicken run, however, that gave me pause ; )

Brett said...

As Director of the School of the Pilgrim (www.schoolofthepilgrim.com), being on Michael's doctoral committee, and having traipsed on portions of the the Camino, I read with joy the commingling of your stories.

Thank you for keeping us abreast of all that is going on!

Rebrites@yahoo.com said...

Note to reader: Anonymous/Carla has a bird phobia, stemming from a terrifying childhood trauma at the National Aviary in Pittsburgh involving Greater Toucans, or some such exotic specie. Or maybe the clouds of common Rock Doves (aka Pigeons, aka ´winged rats´) outside the place.

We´ll get her here, no doubt. Now that the chickens are now safely contained, with the aid of theologians.